Retour d'une vente d'esclaves, à Rio-de-Janeiro
"Trip Back from a Sale of Slaves, in Rio de Janeiro" (caption translation). This engraving shows a slave owner smoking a cigar and carrying an umbrella while leading a horse and a group of four enslaved adults and a child. One of the men carries household goods, including a clock and a musical instrument while the two women, one holding onto a child, are behind him. Bringing up the rear is a man who appears to be guarding the newly-bought slaves. The material goods shown suggest that the auction was not only for the purchase of slaves but household items as well. François-Auguste Biard (1799-1882), or François Thérèse Biard, was a French painter and traveler. Around 1858, he spent two years in Brazil working at the court of Emperor Pedro II. From Rio de Janeiro, he made several excursions into the interior, where he painted some of the earliest images of indigenous people in the Amazon. On his return to France, he went through North America and painted scenes depicting slavery. He published around 180 engravings and was sometimes criticized for inserting humour in otherwise serious paintings. See Ana Lucia Araujo, Brazil through French Eyes: A Nineteenth-Century Artist in the Tropics (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2015).
Image Title
Retour d'une vente d'esclaves, à Rio-de-Janeiro
RegID
SI-OB-971
Date
1858-1860
Title
Retour d'une vente d'esclaves, à Rio-de-Janeiro
Source
François-Auguste Biard, Deux Annèes au Brèsil (Paris: Hachette, 1862), p. 99.
Language
French
Item sets
Slave Sales & Auctions: African Coast & the Americas
Spatial Coverage
South America--Brazil--Rio de Janeiro
Researchers
Jerome Handler; Michael Tuite; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May
Last Updated
10-Jun-16; 6-Sep-19
Identifier
Biard05